People are the Prize

About Me

Welcome!

I’m the owner of the People are the Prize, national consultant, and a former police officer. I’ve been privileged to spend a lifetime working with students as well as training and showing others how to be successful in a school environment.

As a police officer, I was a certified general instructor, hostage negotiator, and community policing officer where I worked in the highest crime areas in the City of Winchester, Virginia. I found my purpose in law enforcement as a School Resource Officer and obtained the certification of a Virginia Crime Prevention Specialist (CPS) with a concentration in conducting comprehensive vulnerability assessments, implementing proactive security strategies, and preventing crime inside public schools. I considered every day I served in a public school a privilege and I try to bring that direct experience of dealing with the challenges and the day-in-and-day-out life in a public school to my trainings and consultation.

I have served as the Executive Director for the Virginia Association of School Resource Officers and an after-school program for children of color called The Caretakers. I have been a therapeutic foster parent, a Boy Scout Leader, and United States Marine for 12 years with the distinction of being an honor graduate from Marine Corps Recruit Training, Infantry Training School, Non-Commissioned Officer School, and Officer Candidate School (in truth, I’m still a Marine–once a Marine, always a Marine:)